Encounters with Authors

by Dale Andrew White

This collection of 20 interviews with and articles about noted writers covers fantasy, poetry, mystery, journalism, drama as well as literary, experimental and commercial fiction.

* In London, Agatha Christie's theatrical producer guards the secrets of "The Mousetrap."
* In Stratford-upon-Avon, actor Derek Jacobi challenges the scholarly interpretation of Shakespeare.
* At Florida's Cross Creek, friends of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings pay homage to her memory.
* On Georgia's St. Simons Island, Eugenia Price shuns her label as a "Christian novelist."
* Behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner warns us about a pending but preventable "apocalypse."
* Southern novelist and journalist Harry Crews remembers his torturous but character-building childhood.
* Tennessee Williams dodges the press.
* Larry McMurtry describes the process of writing his epic "Lonesome Dove."
* John Mortimer testifies on behalf of "Rumpole of the Bailey."
* Chaim Potok, author of "The Chosen," renounces religious fundamentalism.
* Richard Adams, author of "Watership Down," looks deep into his subconscious.
* African poet Kofi Awoonor summons the ghosts of his ancestors.
* Bel Kaufman leads a new generation "Up the Down Staircase."
* Evan Hunter, Richard Eberhart, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Andre Norton and others talk about the art and business of writing.

166 pages, Paperback

First published December 10, 2013

About the author

Dale Andrew White's humorous short stories have appeared in Modern Short Stories, Comic Relief, The MacGuffin, Nuthouse, Beyond Science Fiction & Fantasy and numerous other magazines and journals.

Midwest Book Review calls him "a natural born storyteller with an especial flair for blending fantasy, whimsy, satire and a fevered imagination into original stories that are replete with ribald humor and reader-engaging novelty."

BookReview.com warns that to open a Dale Andrew White short story collection "is to invite trouble - and probably enjoy it."

Several of White's short stories can be downloaded separately on Amazon Kindle.

White is a member of Humor Writers of America. His short story collections have been nominated for the James Thurber Prize for American Humor.

White's free-lance magazine journalism has included interviews with novelist Harry Crews, comedian Henny Youngman, cartoonist Gahan Wilson, the Allman Brothers Band, pop artist Andy Warhol,Up the Down Staircase author Bel Kaufman, behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner, actor Derek Jacobi, Watership Down author Richard Adams, novelist Eugenia Price, rock 'n' roll icons Little Richard and Bo Diddley, macabre cartoonist Gahan Wilson, Sir Peter Saunders (Agatha Christie's theatrical producer), The Blackboard Jungle author Evan Hunter (also known as Ed McBain, author of the 87th Precinct mystery series), Rumpole of the Bailey creator John Mortimer, novelist Chaim Potok, "Hagar the Horrible" cartoonist Dik Browne and others. Many of his interviews are featured in the collection Encounters with Authors and are also available separately on Amazon Kindle.

Reviews

[MJ James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Encounters with Authors by Dale Andrew White is a unique and intriguing book to read. It is a collection of twenty interviews that were conducted by White around 1980; however, the book itself was published over thirty years later. All the writers included in this collection are older, most have passed on before this book was published. Getting to read interviews of authors who have now moved on is the biggest appeal of this book. It is a way to know them outside of their novel, something that we will no longer have the chance to do firsthand.

Most interviews are approximately five pages long. White always includes an antidote about the author, a way of seeing the author from Whites perspective. Most also include a question and answer portion as well. In the case of Agatha Christie, who had already passed on, White interviewed someone who worked closely with her theater productions.

It is no surprise that authors are real human beings, with faults and virtues. However, it is interesting to see their personalities and how they match (or do not match) with their works. There is also a wide variety of authors who are included in the interviews. You may even find someone new to read.

[R.C. Mulhare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Portraits of the Authors as Human Beings

As a reader - and a published author - I'm fascinated with the minds behind the stories that I read. When something I'm reading really clicks with me, I get curious about the author of it, what made them tick, what inspired them to write this tale.

This book is just the thing to satisfy that curiosity. Most of the authors profiled are less recent writers (no Anne Rice or John Grisham), with the exception of greats like Shakespeare and Agatha Christie, but they all come to life, in all their foibles, their strengths and weaknesses, as very human. Very creative humans, indeed, but humans nonetheless. Richard Adams (he of Watership Down and Shardik fame) and the two very different takes on William Shakespeare (one from a scholar who delves into the questions behind Shakespeare's identity, the other from the great actor Sir Derek Jacobi) stood out the most for me, but all of these interviews sparked for me on some level